Here We Go: Christian Assistant Teacher Fired After She Spoke Out Against Pro-Transgender Lessons at Her Son’s Church of England School

April 16, 2019

Kristie Higgs, 43, was a pastoral assistant at a Gloucestershire academy. She had worked at the secondary school for six years with an unblemished record

A Christian school assistant has been fired for “gross misconduct” after she protested against transgender issues being taught at her young son’s Church of England school.

Kristie Higgs, 43, was fired from her positions as pastoral assistant at a Gloucestershire academy after she posted objections on her personal Facebook page to the use of two pro-LGBT children’s books at her son’s school, the Daily Mail reports. The books in question included stories about a boy who wants to wear a dress and a red crayon that discovers it is really blue.

She also urged her Facebook followers to sign a petition against compulsory sex education in primary schools, which will go into effect September 2020. Under the new guidelines issued by the U.K. Department of Education, children as young as five will receive lessons about LGBT relationships and gender reassignment.

On Facebook, Higgs warned that under the new curriculum, “children will be taught that all relationships are valid and ‘normal,’ so that same sex marriage is exactly the same as traditional marriage, and that gender is a matter of choice, not biology, so that it’s up to them what sex they are.”

She added that at the same time, “expressing and teaching fundamental Christian beliefs, relating to the creation of men and women and marriage, will in practice become forbidden — because they conflict with the new morality and are seen as indoctrination into unacceptable religious bigotry.”

“Please sign this petition, they have already started to brainwash our innocent wonderfully created children and its [sic] happening in our local primary school now,” she concluded.

Higgs, a mother of two who had worked at the secondary school for six years with an unblemished record, was fired after a sole anonymous email complaint accused her of “posting homophobic and prejudiced views,” the Daily Mail reports.

A disciplinary panel found she was guilty of “gross misconduct” and “illegal discrimination” for using language which “could be deemed offensive.” The panel also said her comments “could bring the school into disrepute and damage the reputation of the school,” but admitted “there was no actual evidence” that this had happened.

The school told Higgs that “no action was taken because of your religion” and that the disciplinary action occurred “for reasons other than your religion.”

However, Higgs said she’s clearly being targeted for her faith: “As soon as the investigation began I was repeatedly told ‘This is nothing to do with your religion,’” she said. “That was clearly a legal tactic and of course it has everything to do with my religion.”